For me, risotto is one of those foods: the kind I love, but would rather pay someone else to make for me. Right up there with croissants, fresh bread, and pad Thai. There are some exceptions, but usually… $18 instead of stirring for an hour? Yes please!
I actually have no idea how they prepare risotto in restaurants. What poor underpaid soul gets stuck stirring that stuff full-time?!
Luckily, this risotto is different. And that’s because we’re subbing quinoa for the usual risotto rice!
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Hello, beautiful.
You should know that I’ve been wanting to post about this salad for a looong time. Ever since I started this blog, in fact. It’s a copycat of my favorite salad at (probably) my favorite restaurant in Salt Lake, Caffe Niche. But every time I’ve made it, it hasn’t quite lived up to the restaurant version, and I had to get it juuust right. But I think I finally did!
Warm red quinoa, roasted tomatoes and onions, and lemon dressing served over a bed of arugula. It is just as good as it sounds – the nutty flavor of the quinoa, the sweetness of the roasted vegetables, and the bite of the lemon and arugula all combine to make my perfect salad.
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Thank you for all your sweet birthday wishes yesterday! It means so much. I had a great birthday, and I even got to eat one of the cupcakes leftover from yesterday’s blog post. I love it when the leftovers stick around that long!
Sometimes, like yesterday, I like to eat a cupcake… or two. And sometimes, especially after two weeks of experimenting with cupcake recipes, I like to eat a salad.
Then, because I ate a salad, I can totally justify a cupcake. I love the way that works.
So here is this week’s salad, which might be one of my all-time favorites. And that’s a good thing, because I have a lot of cupcakes to make up for earn!
This salad is a combination of all my favorite salad-y things. Red cabbage, which is randomly (but truly) one of my favorite foods. Quinoa and spelt, which are not only some more of my favorite foods, but make this salad much heartier than it would otherwise be. And then edamame, carrots, green onions, and pepitas for more protein, sweetness, flavor and crunch. Not to mention the the light and lemony dressing, which adds the perfect zing.
What could be better than all your favorite healthy foods stacked together in a cute and portable jar?
Not much, I’ll tell you that. In fact, when you taste it, you just might start yelling, OH MY GOD, DOUBLE RAINBOW!
Sorry for that reference. I know it’s so 2010. I just couldn’t resist.
This salad makes the absolute best leftovers (as long as you keep the dressing separate), which is key in my life. I’ve been eating it for lunch all week!
All the ingredients are very sturdy, which also means the salad is super crunchy. (Spelt and red cabbage will do that.) So I may have even liked it best on day 3 or 4, when it was a bit easier on the jaw. (To make it less crunchy, you can put the red cabbage in a strainer and pour a pot of boiling water over it. This will soften it up a bit, but I didn’t bother.)
Enjoy this salad and have a fantastic weekend!
I warned you: Sweet Potato Fever over here. Can someone come over to my house and tell me if I’m turning orange around the edges?
Here’s how we’re getting our sweet potato fix today: roasted, in a bowl with quinoa and broccoli, and drenched in a slurpable sauce. This right here is barely a recipe. Buuuut it’s one of the meals I’ve been eating most often recently, so of course I wanted to share. It’s a great way to use up any vegetables you might have gotten overzealous with on your last shopping trip… ahem sweet potatoes.
I almost always use sweet potatoes when I make this, but the other vegetable can be changed up. I usually try to use something green. Here it was broccoli, but I’ve also done Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale. Green beans or asparagus would also be great as we head into spring!
For a hot meal, this is super fast to make. Quinoa is a quick-cooking grain, and I love that it’s cooked and tender by the time the veggies finish roasting. The dressing can also be whipped up in about 30 seconds, making life so easy.
I recently made this for lunch for Nate, our friend Pete and myself before an afternoon of skiing. I was out of the house when Nate texted me, saying he and Pete were stopping to get Pete’s ski stuff and would be home soon to eat. Eek – for a second I thought I was going to have to renege on my offer to make lunch. But I quickly got my head screwed on straight, raced home, and popped these veggies in the oven. Lunch was ready by the time the boys got back! Success.
This is also one of my favorite lunches to pack for work. It’s so healthy, and the tart and salty sauce is just the type of thing I look forward to eating all morning. Not to mention the sweet potatoes!
Hello Friday! I am so glad to see you.
The first week of daylight savings time has been a little rough. Everyone at work is cranky – myself included! – and I think we all need a few days of sleeping in to remind ourselves that springtime is good, and lighter evenings are worth a few weeks of dark wake-ups in March.
Spring is definitely in the air – you can tell because my morning bowl of oatmeal has been replaced with something cold! A sure sign that things are warming up.
I’m really digging the quinoa-for-breakfast thing. It’s a nice little change from oatmeal, while still getting to use all the fun toppings. I was pretty excited when I saw Ashley’s post a few weeks ago with blood orange quinoa parfaits. I didn’t know quinoa parfaits were a “thing” and I had to try them immediately! Did I mention that besides oatmeal, parfaits are my favorite breakfast?
Anyway, it turns out that quinoa parfaits are indeed a “thing,” and I couldn’t be happier. I just mix up my quinoa with some plain Greek yogurt, agave, and cinnamon, and top with a chopped orange and more cinnamon. Some toasted pecans would be great here too!
If you’d like, you don’t have to mix the quinoa and yogurt together – you could layer the quinoa/agave/cinnamon mixture and yogurt separately. Just another fun little variation!
I topped my parfait with a sumo orange. Have you seen these?
They are basically giant tangerines – sweet and easy to peel. They are so funny-looking, and so delicious – I can’t get enough! I am pretty much an unofficial sumo orange ambassador at this point, making everyone at work try them and now posting about them here. You know how some products tend to do that to you? Actually, my bagger at Whole Foods started it – she gave me one for free a few weeks ago when I was buying some other oranges, insisting that I try it. She said they tasted like candy, and she wasn’t wrong! Of course, the whole free sample thing worked out beautifully for Whole Foods, because I returned and bought about $10 of them the next week, and the week after. They are not cheap. But if you get a kick out of funny-looking produce and sweet oranges, you have to try them!
Such a light but satisfying breakfast. I’m looking forward to enjoying this parfait as spring and summer arrive, and despite my current orange obsession, can’t wait to top it with berries in the warmer weather.
